


Strawberry smoothie

by Zoya113



Category: Hatchetfield Universe - Team StarKid
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:15:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29533236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya113/pseuds/Zoya113
Summary: Paul is on his way to beanies, not because he has a crush on the barista (even if all his friends insist)Emma on the other hand is preparing for the arrival of her favourite regular, not that she’s waiting for him (even if her coworkers can tell otherwise)
Relationships: Paul Matthews & Melissa, Paul Matthews/ Emma Perkins
Comments: 8
Kudos: 11





	Strawberry smoothie

Paul clutched his wallet in his hands, steadying his breath. Beanies was not his favourite coffee shop. The coffee was bad, or at least not to his taste, and none of his friends ever finished their drinks even if he bought them every time. 

Not that he cared though, it wasn’t about the money, and he didn’t go to Beanies for the coffee either, nor to just get out of the office. He liked to see the barista there, he didn’t like to think of himself as creeping of course! He didn’t expect anything from her nor did he ever do much more than order his regular coffee - He just liked to be there, he wouldn’t even stare, not that he wouldn’t mind being friends (or more), as long as she asked first.

I mean he was sort of a regular now, surely she recognised him and his coffee since he ordered the same drink every time. Maybe one day she would-

“Hey, are you taking your break Paul?” 

He was snapped out of his trance as he walked past the secretary’s desk. “Hi, Melissa,” he slowed down his pace. “Did you want anything from Beanies?” He offered as he did to all his friends, he just kept his voice down so Ted didn’t hear.

She hopped off her chair, turning it around to grab her blazer off the back. “D’you mind if I come? I’d like to accompany you today in pining over the baristas.”

“Hah, what?” He scoffed, turning the other way as he felt his skin get hot. “I’m not pining over the baristas, what are you on about? What?”

“Oh you just stare at the short barista just ‘caus?” She asked, shrugging her blazer on and grabbing her backpack. 

“Uh, I don’t stare!” He defended himself, “What do you mean you’re pining over the barista?” He changed the topic quickly. Did he stare? Was he a creep? “I stare?” He held open the doors.

“I’m not in love actually, unlike you, I just think all the women there are very pretty!” She smiled, quite willing to admit that. “I just like to compliment their makeup or their hair! Maybe you should try that sometimes. It’ll get you a lot further than drooling into your coffee.”

He scoffed again in disbelief, somehow that was all he could do right now, “I’m not in love, I’ve told you that.”

“Maybe you’re just scared,” she jeered, tipping her head up to smell the spring air as they prepared to cross the street.

“Do you have a crush on Zoey?” He asked instead of humouring her.

“No!” Melissa staunchly denied it with a shake of her head. “She just upgraded my drink to a large for free once, and I want her to know I still appreciate it, that’s all,” she held up her hands in defence.

“Well why don’t you flirt with Zoey then?” Paul mocked her if only to defend his own honour. It wasn’t as easy as she seemed to think it was. He wasn’t in love with Emma, or well, he was, a bit. But it wasn’t serious. Even if she was the only woman he was interested in he was in no rush. Even if he was walking a bit briskly to the coffee shop.

“Because I’m not in love with Zoey! I mean sure if she asked me out- but that’s not the point, I just want to be her friend! Two girls can be friends, and she seems really cool!” She stated. “Well now you’ve ruined it, because if I compliment her hair I’ll only be able to think it's romantic.” She crossed her arms angrily.

“Maybe you’re just scared,” he teased.

“Well you’re no better,” she huffed. “Besides, I think the short barista likes you back.”

“Huh?” Paul’s heart skipped a beat, and he almost stopped in the middle of the street.

She grabbed his bag, giving him a quick reminder to keep walking off the road. “I was kidding, Paul. Real smooth for someone ‘not in love.’”

“I’m not in love,” he denied once more. Although if his slightly bolder friend could throw in a nice word for him with the barista, he wouldn’t be entirely opposed.

\------------------------------------------

Emma was wiping down the table on the other side of the cafe, Zoey was at the counter, working something out on her phone and a bit too distracted to give her a hand.

“Did Nora say she wanted the 500 gram or the 250 gram bags for merchandising?” She asked, head tilted and brows knitted. “Why didn’t I make a note of that?”

“I wasn’t at the meeting,” Emma shrugged, unable to help. “Go ask Nora,” and Zoey was about to when the bell above the door rang, and in walked one of her regulars, the man in the suit with a girl alongside him.

Sometimes he would bring his coworkers along, there was a nice, older lady who would always order a tea in a very quiet voice, and a man who her regular always referred to as his ‘buddy,’ and tipped quite well. And then of course there was a second man, the man with the shitty mustache who neither Emma nor Zoey wanted to serve. Not that she wanted to rate her customers but he was definitely nearing the bottom of the charts. 

Zoey tucked her phone away, offering a smile to the two customers as they approached the counter.

Emma put her cleaning rag over her shoulder, almost magnetically making her way over to the counter besides Zoey just to be part of it.

“Just a black coffee, thanks,” the man said awkwardly, not sure which of them to make eye contact with.

Emma’s hands went to the register to enter that in - she was already quite aware of her regular’s order, but Zoey was already at the register, and began to type it in as he spoke. She inched in to show Zoey she could handle it, but she was in the middle of the order and signalled for Emma to take a step back. 

Zoey turned to the other girl, but for some reason she had frozen up. 

“She’ll have a strawberry smoothie,” the regular ordered for her. “Isn’t that right, Melissa?” He chuckled like perhaps there was an inside joke Emma didn’t know of. “By the way, your hair looks very lovely today,” he added awkwardly, laughing a bit more, his cheeks red but his voice loud enough to ensure he wasn’t taking it back in his hesitance.

“Of course,” Zoey nodded to Melissa before giving a sort of odd smile to her regular “thanks, ahah,” she scratched her neck, and Melissa nudged her elbow into his satchel bag accusingly, and this time Zoey stepped out of the way. “Can you do the coffee? I’ll start on the smoothie.”

Emma nodded to agree, she liked doing the black coffee actually. She got straight to it, jamming the portafilter into the machine and twisting it into place, pressing the button. 

She ran her hand through her hair, craning her head to check her reflection in the mirror as she groomed a loose strand of hair back into place. She glanced over at Zoey. She supposed her hair was quite nice today, actually, but her hair always looked nice and he had never said that before. He wasn’t really a complimenter.

Sometimes the older lady he came with would mention her hair clips, or tell Zoey her earrings were nice, and her regular’s buddy would tell Zoey she had a very pretty smile, or that Emma was so fast on the coffee, and the mustache guy- well, what he said wasn’t important. And of course this girl seemed to tack a compliment onto every sentence when she didn’t have stage fright but her man in the suit never had anything to share. 

This was funny. This was strange. Maybe it was a dare? Anyways she thought her hair looked fine today too, didn’t it? Why did his opinion matter so much? 

She cupped up his drink, placing it on the counter and pushing it over to him, her other hand adjusting the butterfly clip in her hair. “Here you are,” she passed it right over to him, the both of them sort of looking over the other’s shoulder rather than in the eye. That was good, Emma didn’t enjoy eye contact too much and neither did he it seemed but their gazes brushed past each other long enough for him to smile at her.

“Good day so far?” She asked the two of them to make conversation, eyes still locked over his shoulder though.

Melissa begun to nudge him again, but he opened his mouth and nothing came out, so she piped up instead. “Oh it’s really great today, the flowers have started blooming outside! Also, your makeup looks so good today, by the way!” 

Emma laughed her thanks, turning her head over her shoulder to notice Zoey seemed to have heard that too, and was sort of squinting.

“And your hair too,” she continued. “I really like your hair clips. Right Paul? Don’t you think her hair looks nice?” She sort of spoke through gritted teeth as if she were cueing him into something.

“Uh, um, yeah,” he nudged her back, shooting a quick glare her way. “Sure, mhm.”

It did sort of seem like a dare now. That was just a little bit too forced. She adjusted her hair clip once more, sort of insecure about it now. “Thanks?”

She turned back around, not really wanting to hang around at the counter now, she’d help Zoey with the smoothie. 

“Are you getting mixed signals today?” Zoey asked, using her knife to slide the strawberry tops across to the other side of her chopping board.

“Here, I’ll handle it,” Emma tried to step up to the blender but Zoey nudged her back with her shoulder.

“Hey, we don’t need everyone getting their hands on the strawberries,” it wasn’t quite a scold, but it seemed a bit incredulous. “I’m already handling the smoothie.”

“It’s okay, I’ll make it, you have to go ask Nora about what sort of bags she wants, remember?” She pointed out. 

“It’ll take me like two minutes, Em, it’s okay,” she collected the strawberries up to put them into the blender. “Can you go get me a cup?” she did ask though.

“Zoey I’ll handle the smoothie,” she insisted, putting a hand on Zoey’s arm, glancing over her shoulder at the two customers. The suit man was looking right back at her, but glanced away the second they made eye contact. 

She felt her skin heating up, turning back to the smoothie, “I’ll handle it Zoey!” she snapped, grabbing the blender top from besides the machine.

“God, wow, if you insist,” Zoey sort of chuckled, but stepped back to go fetch a cup. “Sorry for the wait, you two,” she turned back to their customers.

“Oh, it’s no problem!” The man in the suit assured her. “Take all the time you need.” Once more Emma caught him elbowing his friend, and this time she just rolled her eyes. 

“Thank you, no need to apologise,” she added a bit reluctantly. 

Emma tried to catch his eye again, but he was staring at his feet now.

“Jeez,” Emma slapped a hand to the blending button, enjoying the sort of privacy made by the barrier of sound as the machine whirred but almost immediately she felt a force ride up against the lid before it burst right off, the blended mess inside splashing out across the wall as Emma’s hand blindly slapped down on the ‘off’ button, sending the whole cafe into silence as the blade in the blender spun around dizzily a few more times, the machine rocking in its spot. 

She raised a hand to wipe the pink mess off her face, trying to catch a breath without inhaling strawberry chunks.

“Emma!” Came Zoey’s shocked gasp, and from the sound of her breath she could tell without even turning around that Zoey had been in the splash zone.

She clutched for her cleaning rag, but it was drenched in strawberry milk too. She dared to open her eyes, the splatter went all the way up the wall, and with dread in her heavy, heavy heart she turned around to see Zoey combing chunks of strawberry out of her hair with her fingers, splatters of milk all down her apron. 

“Why didn’t you put the lid on properly?” She could barely figure out how Emma could’ve made that mistake. “I-” she spluttered, wiping her face before falling entirely silent, reaching for the napkins. “I’’m gonna go get Nora, start cleaning up,” she sighed, brushing past Emma. “Lovestruck, much?”

“What? Huh?” Emma didn’t get it, offended that Zoey was gonna leave it to her to apologise to their customers but she was already gone. “Oh my god, guys, I’m so sorry.” Emma ran her hands through her hair, well now it certainly didn’t look nice, but she supposed Zoey’s didn’t look much better either.

The two customers were silent until the girl began to laugh, arms held out in front of her but hands limp as milk dripped off her blazer. She shook her head, taking her glasses off her face and blinking to readjust her eyes. “Well that doesn’t happen every day!” It was sort of an amused squeal, but at least she wasn’t upset. “I’m not laughing at you, sorry, I’m just having a good time!”

Emma certainly wasn’t.

The man in the suit though, her regular who always ordered his black coffee and attempted awkward small talk when it was just the two of them and always had a kind smile and tipped well, well he was frowning, wincing at the stains on his suit jacket, and although she didn’t know it was possible Emma’s heart sunk further.

“Oh my god, sir, I’m so sorry- here,” she snatched some napkins out of the dispenser to hand across to him, searching frantically for a wet towel not covered in smoothie, but despite the clear distress on both of their faces his companion was still laughing, rather content as she slipped out of her blazer, and it wasn’t really annoying, it was the only thing not making this situation terribly awkward. 

“Thanks,” he took the wet towel, dabbing it down to the spots on his suit that wouldn’t quite come off. “Sorry, no, don’t apologise, you should probably start, uh,” he couldn’t hold back a weak chuckle as she kept laughing. 

“I’m gonna lose my fucking job,” Emma began to laugh too. “I’m so- I’m so sorry guys. Oh my god, can I get you guys anything else? Water?” It was hard not to laugh, even when there was milk running down her cheeks, and strawberry in her hair, this girl just seemed to be having the time of her life for some reason. God, but she was so embarrassed, and certainly not really amused, she was just waiting for him to smile, even if she should probably be worrying about Nora or Zoey’s reaction more, she only seemed to value his opinion somehow.

“Interesting way to drink a smoothie!” Melissa laughed again, and then the man in the suit began to laugh along with the two of them.

“I’m so sorry, miss, are you okay?” He asked, putting his coffee down behind the counter where the drippage couldn’t get to it. “You didn’t get hurt did you? Is there any in your eyes?”

The girl had taken her laughter elsewhere so she didn’t interrupt the conversation, wiping down her glasses with napkins over the bin in the corner. 

Emma shook her head, not sure why he was the one apologising. “I’m totally fine sir, I’m so sorry about your suit, do you think that’s gonna come out?”

He nodded frantically. “Oh it’ll come out easy, I think those napkins you gave me already did the trick, miss, please don’t apologise, we aren’t mad at all, is the blender damaged? Or is it still working?” he was sort of stammering like he didn’t know what else to say besides apologising. He was certainly trying to make conversation though. 

“Oh god, no, it’s fine, it’s my bad, I didn’t have the lid on right. Do you need another drink? I’ll remake it, totally free,” she shook her head, glancing over her shoulder to check if Nora or Zoey had come back, or if the mess on the wall and the table was getting any worse. 

He once more assured her, frantically and apologetically, that everything was fine on his end as he worked on cleaning up his suit. 

“Shoot, sorry, I’ve gotta get to cleaning this up and then I’ll make it again - properly, I’ll just give her a second to uh, collect herself.”

He glanced over at his friend who had stopped laughing only because she was sort of gasping for air, what was so funny about this Emma still didn’t know, but she was glad she had a moment alone with the poor man, just to ensure he was actually okay. But then he glanced back at her for the first time since the explosion and held up a hand like he was about to reach out.

“Oh, you have-” his hand reached forward before he stopped himself. “Something in your hair.”

“Oh!” she winced as she pulled a chunk of strawberry out of her hair, shaking it off her hand onto the counter. 

“Much better,” he finally smiled, collecting his cup and taking back a step. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

Her skin flushed hot again, and she smiled back with a laugh, his smile fluctuating between a laugh and a sympathetic grin like he didn’t know what to do with himself. “Thanks, uh, I’ll-” she pointed back to the blender.

“Oh! No, no!” Came the girl’s exclamation. “It’s okay, that probably needs to be cleaned up first and I don’t wanna upset the other barista,” she pattered over, breath caught but still red in the face, “I don’t mind! I don’t mind! Can I just get an iced tea from the fridge?”

Emma nodded, relieved there wasn’t trouble to be caused. She just wanted to keep her job, and well, she supposed, make sure her regulars were happy.

She turned around to grab the tea from the fridge, catching him dropping a ten dollar note into the tip jar. “Uh, you can keep it. For the mess. Sorry, I know it probably doesn’t cover any damage or anything but-”

She snorted, smiling and not caring about how dumb she looked anymore. “That’s real sweet of you.”

His cheeks turned red, and he laughed again. “Oh! No problem,” he snatched up his friend’s blazer that she had left by the counter, tapping her on the shoulder to gesture that it was time to leave, and with one last wave from the both of them, they left.

Ah well. Not so bad as far as blender explosions go. She’d take it. 

Oh. But she did have to go clean all this up.

**Author's Note:**

> Melissa & the inability to differentiate between platonic and romantic feelings u go girl keep it up


End file.
